Few things can be more frightening than standing up to an NBA player – your eyes as high as his elbows, your head able to be palmed in his hand and your body equal in weight to that of the Benjamins rolled in his money clip – and telling him what to wear.

But that’s what NBA commissioner David Stern did earlier this week when he released the league’s dress code requiring “business casual attire” at all team-related functions.

Stern is rightfully reining control over a league whose players have let too much hang out and droop down below their waistbands. (See The Palace at Auburn Hills, Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case, Jayson Williams murder trial, etc.)

The boss is merely doing sound business by infusing more professionalism and corporate conservatism into the league. That’s what it takes to make mainstream, middle-America dollars out of a product that has looked too 50 Cent.

“I knew there would be a lot of negative reaction with guys not being allowed to wear their bling and their throwbacks, but the league needed to upgrade and update their style because the younger generation, quite frankly, had gotten a little sloppy,” said David Heil, designer and owner of David August, the popular Costa Mesa clothier who makes $2,500-$3,500 suits for Lakers coach Phil Jackson and All-Star guard Bryant among others.

Since the dress code was announced Monday, Heil’s business has seen “a huge influx” of new orders, with these big-and-tall players now needing sports coats and suits for game and travel days.

Heil, 44, outfits Miami Heat players Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy and owner Donald Sterling, and San Antonio Spurs forward Robert Horry in handmade suits made of European wool and cashmere, often striped and bearing a wide, two-button placement.

“Players don’t like people telling them what to wear,” said Heil on Friday, while working on wardrobe for Phoenix All-Star center Amare Stoudemire.

“As soon as they see that they can be dressy and still show their style, they’ll like this. You’ll see everyone from the players to the front office really get into dressing up again.”

Tattooed, corn-rowed Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson was among the players to oppose the dress code, which virtually un-hip-hops the modern-day hoopster, prohibiting him from showcasing his do-rags, side-cocked caps, his Mitchell & Ness throwback jerseys, his 5 pounds of chains and medallions and new sneakers.

Academics have charged that the code unfairly represses racial or urban cultural expression. But these are some of the same players who proudly sport custom stretch suits on draft day and climb to the stage at Madison Square Garden when Stern calls their name.

Stern isn’t trying to make his NBA, in which 80 percent of the players are black, a No Blackness Association. He isn’t trying to make this into a minstrel show, change DNA or turn anybody into Michael Jackson.

This is a superficial change, tinsel and snowflakes on the windows in an Orange County winter, Los Angeles on the front of Arte Moreno’s Angels of Anaheim.

It is for appearances only, and it was time. Stern seemed worried in his dark suit and red tie and later in his dark suit and gold tie about the NBA Finals’ sinking ratings, increasing bad publicity and the stagnant U.S. popularity for the game – which, though celebrated in urban regions, trails the NFL nationally, and is getting lapped by NASCAR in the red-state regions.

The NBA might be growing globally, but in America it is slipping from the mainstream hip like oversized jeans without any support from the Bible Belt or older generations.

Stern needs to showcase a more presentable, professional looking product. So he is playing to the middle with a “business casual” dress code. The fact that “white” and “conservative” get loaded into the basketball in this business situation shows us how touchy this country is on the subjects of race and politics.

Yes, Republican campaign strategist Matthew Dowd, a former Karl Rove adviser, used to run NBA focus groups to gauge the league’s popularity around the country. But he’s no longer with the league so we can’t credit him with trying to dress Iverson like Urkel.

This is Stern’s makeover with collars and suits so that the public doesn’t have to think about the few damaging off-the-court legal collars and suits that damaged the league’s reputation with clean-cut loving America.

Players might protest. They might cry “racism.” They might complain about how the new wardrobe expenses cut into their jewelry budget.

But in the end, they will suit up the way others did when Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan sported killer three-pieces and three-pointers. That’s the style.